IFI French Film Festival lineup showcases stunning queer cinema

Celebrating their 20th anniversary, the IFI French Film Festival have announced an exceptional lineup of film to captivate lovers of queer cinema.

The IFI French Film Festival’s 20th anniversary will be opening with the stellar Portrait of a Girl on Fire, winner of the Queer Palm at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

Céline Sciamma’s critically acclaimed movie Portrait of a Girl on Fire will be spearheading the screening of 28 amazing features. The Festival kicks off today, Wednesday, November 13, and running up to Sunday, November 24.

Portrait of a Girl on Fire tells the tale of Marianne as she falls in love with a countess’s daughter Héloïse amid 18th century France. It is a captivating film which questions the link between art and desire. In an interview with Film Comment, Sciamma said, “At the centre of the film is this idea that there is no muse, or that it’s a beautiful word for hiding the reality of how women have been collaborating with artists.”

Throughout the Festival’s 20 years, it has shown numerous films which captured unique looks at queer identity and euphoric celebrations of diversity. This year is continuing the tradition with stories bursting with new ideas and riveting direction.

Speaking about the 2019 IFI French Film Festival lineup, Festival Director Marie-Pierre Richard said, “Women are strongly represented in our programme, both as subjects, ranging from Joan of Arc, through 18th century France, to contemporary stories of urban homelessness; and as filmmakers, from the pioneering Alice Guy-Blaché who produced more than 1,000 films, to Justine Triet and Manele Labidi Labbé.”

Pioneering filmmaker Alice Guy-Blaché will receive a touching tribute as her short films are screened throughout the Festival. On the final day, Pamela B. Green’s Be Natural, a new documentary about Guy-Blaché narrated by Jodie Foster, will make its spectacular Irish debut.

The much-anticipated documentary about the life of Yves Saint Laurent, directed by Olivier Meyrou, will be premiered as part of the lineup. There will also be a screening of Xavier Dolan’s latest movie Matthias and Maxime, which focuses on the friendship between two men as their relationship changes after they kiss.

As the IFI French Film Festival gets underway, the recently announced lineup is an amazing way to honour what has come before but also look ahead. The films screened showcase bold and innovative perspectives with something for everyone to enjoy.

Tickets for the IFI French Film Festival are now on sale from the IFI Box Office as well as online at the following link: www.ifi.ie/frenchfest.

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